Creative Coalition

In times like these, where would we be without art? In our First Women in Art issue, we celebrate the mold-breakers—artists, curators, philanthropists, and gallerists—who are pushing boundaries (and buttons) to expose truths about ourselves and our time and make the world a more vibrant place to live.

The inheritance: From the truisms she plastered around New York City in the '70s and '80s (Abuse of Power Comes as No Surprise) to recent paintings of government files documenting torture, Holzer, 61, is the art world's most elegant moral compass. In October, she received her latest accolade, a National Arts Award. And now her 23-year-old daughter, a photographer, is also committed to exposing hypocrisy and injustice. A grad student at Columbia School of Journalism, Holzer-Glier says her image series "Backside" reveals "the racism, poverty, and addiction that lurk behind the glamorous face of thoroughbred racing."

Mother's work: "Once, while I was fixated on a piece, [Lili, then six] flew squadrons of paper planes at my head from the loft, each with a message, such as Bat Hat Cat Come On Mom! and Pick Up the Plane!" Holzer says. " `Pick up the plane' became a supra-meta-imperative for us."

Photographed at Holzer's Brooklyn studio, in front of her Survival: UNEX sign, 1983.

Creative Coalition

Creative Coalition

Maria Arena Bell Art's Class Act

The give: When the Emmy-toting head writer and exec producer of The Young and the Restless isn't revving up plots, she's applying her relentless creative focus to rainmaking. As president of the P.S. Arts board, she helps raise some $3.1 million annually to bring art classes to more than 11,000 low-income public schoolers via Hollywood hot tickets such as the all-ages crafting blitz Express Yourself (David Beckham brought the kids). Bell pushes arts education nationally, too, as cochair of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MoCA) board and chair of the Americans for the Arts' National Arts Awards.

Priorities: She and husband Bill Bell Jr. are major art collectors—Duchamp, Warhol, Koons—and hobnobbers, but for her the glamour is a side note. "State funding is under five cents a child! It's a critical intervention."

Extra credit: Y&R gallery has featured work from Shepard Fairey and Damien Hirst. "You won't see that on prime time!"

Photographed with students in the P.S. Arts program at Lennox Middle School in Los Angeles' South Bay.